It was appalling when the House majority leader threatened political
retribution against judges who did not toe his extremist political line. But
when a second important Republican stands up and excuses murderous violence
against judges as an understandable reaction to their decisions, then it is
time to get really scared.

It happened on Monday, in a moment that was horrifying even by the
rock-bottom standards of the campaign that Republican zealots are conducting
against the nation's judiciary. Senator John Cornyn, a Texas Republican,
rose in the chamber and dared to argue that recent courthouse violence might
be explained by distress about judges who "are making political decisions
yet are unaccountable to the public." The frustration "builds up and builds
up to the point where some people engage in" violence, said Mr. Cornyn, a
former member of the Texas Supreme Court who is on the Senate Judiciary
Committee, which supposedly protects the Constitution and its guarantee of
an independent judiciary.

Listeners could only cringe at the events behind Mr. Cornyn's fulminating:
an Atlanta judge was murdered in his courtroom by a career criminal who
wanted only to shoot his way out of a trial, and a Chicago judge's mother
and husband were executed by a deranged man who was furious that she had
dismissed a wild lawsuit. It was sickening that an elected official would
publicly offer these sociopaths as examples of any democratic value, let
alone as holders of legitimate concerns about the judiciary.

The need to shield judges from outside threats - including those from
elected officials like Senator Cornyn - is a priceless principle of our
democracy. Senator Cornyn offered a smarmy proclamation of "great distress"
at courthouse thuggery. Then he rationalized it with broadside accusations
that judges "make raw political or ideological decisions." He thumbed his
nose at the separation of powers, suggesting that the Supreme Court be "an
enforcer of political decisions made by elected representatives of the
people." Avoiding that nightmare is precisely why the founders made federal
judgeships lifetime jobs and created a nomination process that requires
presidents to seek bipartisan support.

Echoes of the political hijacking of the Terri Schiavo case hung in the air
as Mr. Cornyn spoke, just days after the House majority leader, Tom DeLay,
vengefully vowed that "the time will come" to make the judges who resisted
the Congressional Republicans' gruesome deathbed intrusion "answer for their
behavior." Trying to intimidate judges used to be a crime, not a bombastic
cudgel for cynical politicians.

The public's hope must be that Senator Cornyn's shameful outburst gives
further pause to Senate moderates about the threats of the majority leader,
Senator Bill Frist, to scrap the filibuster to ensure the confirmation of
President Bush's most extremist judicial nominees. Dr. Frist tried to
distance himself yesterday from Mr. DeLay's attack on the judiciary. But Dr.
Frist must carry the militants' baggage if he is ever to run for president,
and he complained yesterday of "a real fire lighted by Democrats around
judges over the last few days."

By Democrats? The senator should listen to what's being said on his side of
the aisle, if he can bear it.

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